#1180 1AM’s Glenn Hunt facing bankruptcy

April 11, 2010

The Herald on Sunday reports today that 1AM‘s Glenn Hunt has had bankruptcy proceedings launched against him by North Shore based printing company MH Publications, following an unpaid debt of $31,238. And they’re not the first company left out of pocket for printing 1AM. PMP Maxum Ltd had Wish Publishing, 1AM‘s initial parent company, placed in liquidation in May last year for further unpaid debts. According to the article, Hunt said that 1AM had struggled to obtain advertising as a result of the recession, and that printers were more hardline on late bills. While it is true that the recession has caused plenty of problems for the publishing industry, I can’t help but think that had Glenn Hunt chosen a different path for his magazine than raw, often compromising photos of scantily clad, young-looking girls and boys (the same issue that caused severe complications for his former title Pavement), said problems with finding the advertising dollar may have been alleviated.

Comments

At the end of the day it just wasn’t very good publication. At all. Terrible photography for starters. It came across as truly amateur and the tired pseudo kiddie porn that killed Pavement was a real disappointment also. Not the to mention the dearth of content – even a little bit of good writing might have lifted it’s game. It’s a shame because Hunt is quite a skilled graphic designer and obviously has a great deal of passion and tenacity. His vision of ‘fashion’ and ‘beauty’ seems to be seriously skewed however. Wish You Were Here, his previous project with his wife was far superior and infinitely more sophisticated and relevant.

Also in the article it stated that Glenn fully intends to pay back any and all debts and is working toward that, which is commendable and very unlike other publications who just jump from publisher to publisher leaving many of us with unpaid invoices and paying for their lifestyle as they trip on to the next thing….

I agree that his mag probably did go too far down the wrong ‘scantily clad young people’ track, however I don’t think this can be directly related to his being unable to find the advertising dollar. The lack of info/content as anonymous @3:33 suggests can better account for this.

Probably the best part of article was his alleged lack of awareness about the proceedings by MH, in fact he thanks the herald for letting him know.

I’ve looked at (not read!) every issue of 1AM and I must say I would prefer less nudity. Nudity should be done artfully and only used to show the beauty of a person’s body, not how undeveloped and frisky they are.

“if Black Magazine has taught us anything it’s that bankruptcy is just the beginning. forget your previous debts and start a fresh”Doesn’t anyone think about the companies and individuals that the likes of Black and 1am owe money to? How are they meant to survive?This is just another selfish approach so big egos with bad business sense can prosper.